Pterois & Betta
by DeadB
Summary: Sam's eyes were wide as she stared into the man's unnaturally large blue greenish eyes, the pupil formed into a small thin line reminding her of a cat's eye. "Should I ask who, or rather 'what' you are?" Sam tilted her head to the side as she stared into those large green eyes, the same eyes she feel in love with. (Mer-fic, warning for adult themes, older characters)
1. Chapter 1

**Okay, DeadB here and I hope that you'll enjoy this. I'm not to hundred on it myself but we will see how it turns out later, right? So please be a little gentle on me in the beginning please, thank you. **

**I thought myself that there weren't enough stories like this one and so far I've only seen what… three? Maybe four with the same story plot or story idea and I think that is way too few so I decided to do one myself. I really hope you enjoy it. **

**LolitaB-muse: DeadB doesn't own anything and will never own anything with a big significance to the world, that's how pathetic she really is. **

**LolitaB, just do the disclaimer and don't add your stupid comments! **

**LolitaB-muse: Anger Managments… Enjoy.**

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Quiet sobs escaped her as she tried to dry away the tears falling down her cheeks; trying to erase the tears from history. She wondered why she cried so much this time, it wasn't really the first time they'd argued. It'd actually been over a thousand times that she'd come home, they'd start argue and she soon escaped the house by throwing something at the wall and storming out; it had become a routine by now. At first she'd gone to her parents and told them what was going on but they all blamed it on her, saying that if she was just a little more welcome and open minded about things then everything would become better – they're the ones that needed to be open minded! The only one in her family who'd helped her and didn't blame her was her grandma.

She was free now, at least just for the moment. He would be gone for more than a month leaving her back useless as always. It wasn't that she would do anything to change that though, the time he went to work she was free for the time being and she loved it.

It still scarred though. All that had happened in her life scarred leaving at least some trace on her body that wouldn't disappear whatever she did; unless she made surgery to take it away. Like her parents, they left a perfect pale skin. Her _boyfriend_ left a permanent scar on her neck that looked like a long chain. Her high school life left her tough and cold against most people and that includes her parents.

Swallowing she took a deep breath and dried her tears away. "Okay, Sam, get it together. You are stronger than this," Sam scolded herself. "Since when did you ever think crying fixed anything?"

Sam looked up at the darkening sky and if she listened closely enough through the wind and the large waves she could hear thunder in the far distance, she was almost sure enough that a lightning split the horizon for a second before disappearing.

Frowning Sam stood up and brushed her purple pants of off sand. There was a long time to go to get home and she had no intention what so ever to walk in rain but there weren't so many places to go to around the shore either. Of course, she could always go to her parent that currently resided at their gigantic beach house but there'd be no quiet moment if she did, other than that there were only public places along the shore lines that she could think of.

Instead of wasting more time Sam started walking in the directions of the sky with still just light grey clouds. There was a slight chance that the rain would not reach that part of the beach but she had her doubts. Lady Luck had never really been a close friend of hers.

The wind picked up quickly and soon the purple and green ribbons that she'd been wearing to keep her hair away from her eyes was ripped from her raven black hair and landed somewhere away in the water.

"No!" Sam shouted and reached her hand out towards the two ribbons but then sighed sadly. She'd had those ribbons since she'd been a little girl.

Letting out a sigh she kept walking when she noticed the peach colored sand started changing colors to a dark brown grey-ish color; the rain was coming and when Sam looked up at the sky she saw dark black clouds above her.

In a desperate attempt to get away from the rain she started running and shielded her eyes from the rain in a better attempt to see where she was going through the soon heavy rain.

She squinted her eyes slightly as she ran towards the small cliffs in the distance. She coughed as she tried to see through the rain where she was going as she put her feet on the slippery cliffs. She feared that she would slip with the black and purple Converse shoes she was wearing; she really hated them but they'd been a birthday gift from her grandpa before he passed and couldn't find the heart to throw them away.

With a fast beating heart she concentrated her hardest on seeing where she put her hands and feet but it was also hard to keep balanced with the seawater and the large waves washing the cliffs wet and slippery, in a simple word dangerous. And even if Sam had been climbing larger mountains then the small cliffs at the beach it was nothing compared to being alone, wet, scared and being without any kind of communication on her or anything that would keep her safe when climbing. One mistake could be fatal in a storm, both on land and in the sea.

She tried her hardest not to think about what would happen if she slipped or lost grip on the cliff. Two scenarios played in her mind; one, she slipped and fell on the rocks below her including in hitting her head on the rock and bleeding to death and two, falling of the rocks into the deep and dark plus dangerous sea below the rocks. Which one could be fatal and which had the most possibility of happening were both.

Biting her lip hard Sam moved her hand to another rock but slipped at the seaweed that had been washed up on the cliff. As she lost grip with her right hand her right foot followed suit after and with the shock that came with the slip Sam almost lost contact with the large rock all together. But by some strange luck Sam survived with only gliding down a few feet leaving a large rip on her lower left leg and a smaller one on her right forearm.

She landed on some small cliff sticking out of the larger ones, not seeing the small opening behind her.

Hissing she grabbed her leg and stared at her soon bloodstained hands. "Damn…"

She looked around as if she would find something to wrap around her leg since it was worse than the one on her arm. But because of the lack of material to work with Sam soon took of her black _Kiss _t-shirt and wrapped it as good as she could around her leg; a large dark line became visible showing where the wound recited.

Looked around again Sam noticed the small opening behind her and could have thrown herself at the rocks for being so stupid. Hissing as she crawled carefully on all three - trying to keep her hurt leg above the ground - she disappeared into the small cave tunnels darkness.

The tunnel was dark and cold and there were lack of space to make place for just one person. Rain and wind didn't reach the tunnel but water did and if Sam calculated right then the cave would be gone with the tide which would also explain the smell of dead fish, plankton and all the slimy underwater plants covering the floor of the tunnel.

The stench of dead fish kept interfering with Sam's sense of smell and it was hard to keep focus with the fear of putting her hand on a dead slimy fish; the thought made her shudder. _Focus!_

The tunnel was longer than what Sam had expected but what she hadn't expected was how the end of the tunnel would look. What she believed to be an exit on the other side of the cliffs ended in an underwater cave that seemed to be lying deep under the water which made it possible for it to be air filled most of the day when the tide wasn't flushing the whole place.

It was beautiful. Most of the cave floor was water – not deep probably only to Sam's knees at deepest – while the deepest seemed to be connected to an underwater tunnel at the end in what reminded much of large pond. The deeper parts of the water were protected by a small waterfall that seemed to fall from a large cut in the cliff with climbing plants decorated with half dead sea flowers and other water plants that flushed in with the water. From the sealing there were also climbing plants hanging down like a long cut up drapery that covered not only the sealing but some of the walls as well. But what was the tip of the ice burg was the beautiful reflection on the walls made by the water.

"Wow…" Sam could not believe what she was seeing; it was all like an unbelievable dream.

Pulling herself up on both legs Sam could almost not believe the beautiful sight or that it was really happening. Either she was dead or she was dreaming. She was going to go with dreaming since she had no intention of dying just yet, heck she had her entire life in front of her so she wasn't going anywhere anytime soon.

Taking a shaky and unstable step forward Sam was about to go look around the cave for a way up back to the surface when something blocked her walking path making her fall face forward on the seaweed filled floor; it reminded her quite a lot of some kind of slimy, green carpet.

Groaning Sam pushed up on two hands - her hurt arm stinging from the fall - and shook her head trying to get what just happened. It wasn't hard really as she soon figured out the whole deal; walk, stumble, trip, on the floor. Rather simple really. That wasn't what caught her attention, but rather what or, better fitting, _WHO _she'd tripped on.

On the ground under her feet was a boy, no young man lying unconscious covered mostly by the seaweed; she'd probably not have spotted him if it wasn't for his unnatural white hair.

Sam opened her mouth to speak but found no words as she soon found herself on her knees gently but harsh at the same time shook the man to see if he was awake or if he was, what Sam feared he might, dead.

"Hey, you okay?" Sam asked as she tried to get a look at his face but it felt like an impossible task as he was lying faced down.

When he didn't respond Sam started searching his neck for a pulls but something stopped her as her fingers brushed against something, something protruding on the skin of his neck. When she'd brushed against it she noticed that the man shuddered which she took as a sign of life. Now the only problem would be to turn him around, he could be a man from the area or he could just be a tourist on vacation who'd ended up falling down the cliffs or maybe flushed in with the water and left there. What was beyond her was how he'd survived if he'd been flushed in with the water and if he'd fallen in the same way as she had then he should at least have scraps or bruises on his body to prove it. Though the highest priority at the moment was making sure he was okay, Sam couldn't help wondering how'd he'd ended up in the middle of the room.

She took a deep breath and examined her arm quickly before she started pushing his body over for him to face upwards, facing down could blockade the airways down to the lungs.

Well simply said it was no easy task. The man didn't look so but he was pretty heavy or maybe it was only Sam being hurt but it felt as if he had grown stuck to the seaweed because when he finally tipped over some seaweed burst and was ripped in half from what seemed to be stuck to his torso. Frowning at that Sam started to pluck the seaweed from his chest to see if he was hurt only to find small bruises and gentle cuts that seemed to be healing fine without her help, which was a relief.

Brushing her fingers against the scraps and bruises she felt how harsh and rough his skin was not to mention - not sure if it was because he was wet or not - slimy. When looking at her fingers she noticed that some of her skin had been ripped, not deep enough to draw blood but enough to show which caused her a deep frown. But slightly ripped skin wasn't all that was visible on her fingertips but also some kind of green, almost bubbling, substance that had seemed to have transferred from his cuts onto her.

When plucking the seaweed stuck onto his chest away Sam noticed something that made her blush till the entire being was red like a tomato. The man was naked. Like pure naked, no pants, no shirt, nothing that covered up his…_ private _parts.

"Oh my god," Sam whispered as she turned around her cheeks blushing a furious red.

It wasn't that she hadn't seen a man naked before, seriously she wasn't even a virgin anymore but the part of her not knowing him was kind of making the whole situation pretty embarrassing plus the part with her being without a shirt was making the whole situation even more embarrassing if he were to wake up any time soon.

Taking a deep breath Sam started to say silent things to herself to calm down. "Okay, just cover him up with your shirt, that's not too hard," she said to herself as she removed the half bloody shirt from her leg and fast threw it over the man's lower region.

"Then that's done, now there's only who he is that's the problem…"

Sam gently ran her hand through his white hair and to her surprise the white color seemed to disappear slightly with her hand as if it wasn't supposed to be there. Removing her hand Sam was surprised to find it just as clean as it'd been before; no white covered her hand as she'd believe it to.

Moving her hand along his arm Sam frowned when she saw the long black scar like marking from his elbow down to the back of his hand. Taking a deep breath she followed the black scar with her thumb till she came to the back of his hand that was… slimy? Again with the slimy. This confused Sam even further as she'd never met a human in her entire life that was ever _slimy_. And as it wasn't just his hand that was slimy Sam started to wonder what in the world this man had been doing to end up like this.

Suddenly the man's hand moved twisting Sam's around and held a firm grip around her wrist.

Sam's eyes were wide as she stared into the man's unnaturally large blue greenish eyes, the pupil formed into a small thin line reminding her of a cat's eye. His stare felt cold as ice and even though Sam tried she could not look away, hardly even move a muscle at all! He had her in an iron grip and wasn't letting go.

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**And I did it! I finished an ****entire chapter, wohooo! I'm sooo happy, now I just hope I'll get to the second chapter. That's more difficult than what it sounds like.**

**LolitaB-muse: Easier said than done…**

**Thank you that are what I've looked for. Easier said than done… **

**Now what to expect from the next chapter:**

**Before she knew it he'd grabbed her leg and was staring at it; Sam having fallen flat on her bum. - Ouch... Hehe, I will try to be nice.**

**What he said, Sam didn't know. He wasn't speaking a language she'd ever heard. - He can speak! Well, of course he can speak... I knew that.**

**He seemed to think about the name for a moment before nodding with a smile. - Naming people, its normal.**


	2. Chapter 2

**Thank you, you five who've reviewed my story so far. I honestly didn't expect there to be any who'd wish to read such a fic like this. I was actually, in the beginning thinking that I shouldn't upload it but decided to give it a shot anyways. And I hope that you'll like this chapter, too, and that I'll live up to your goals. **

**Disclaimer_ I don't own Danny Phantom, nor any other person, name, state or sea-creature that will be mentioned in this story. **

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Sam wasn't sure what was scarier, the hard grip his slimy hand had around her wrist or those large green blue eyes. She was pretty sure that it was the eyes that would win any-day; they gave her the creeps literally sending shivers down her spine. It felt as if she was staring into the eyes of a predator who'd just caught its pray and if Sam hadn't known better she would probably have screamed out of pure shock and fear but collected herself just in time to not utter a word. She didn't even dare move a muscle in fear that he would... well, do anything really.

Slowly swallowing Sam tried to get her breath to function properly again as the mans pupils slowly started to grow bigger, a little less threatening and the grip around her wrist was slowly starting to relax and ease its grip enough to be almost friendly. The slimy sensation that had come with his grip had somewhere along the transformation from predator to normal ceased and the only slime that Sam felt was what had refused to disappear from her skin.

The young man's eyes had gone from large green blue-ish predator like to a little over average large blue eyes, but they looked fairly normal in Sam's eyes and if she hadn't known better she would have taken him for any normal college-teenager any-day. Lucky enough for Sam she knew better than that and had enough sense to know what to do in a situation while facing a predator - which, in her brain she was at the moment. But when she looked into the mans eyes again all she could see was the ocean. Oh my God, could a person have that blue eyes? It was as if she was staring into the ocean itself when she saw how the green had drained out of the once dangerous iris'.

Without her knowledge or being able to even apprehend that she had actually been staring into the mans eyes, his hand had slowly been removed from her wrist; her wrist was feeling unnaturally cold and dry. He was still staring at her too though as if she was some kind of foreign creature that had never been seen before. Sure, she was goth but that didn't make her less human than him.

A pair of fingers suddenly touched Sam's cheek and she blinked when she realized that he was touching her. The touch was gentle, as if he was scared that she would disappear or turn to dust if he were to even try using any strength and really, the touch was nothing else but gentle and soft. But! That didn't change the fact that this man was a complete stranger and that she had actually no idea of who he was and he didn't know who she was.

Sam grabbed his wrist and removed his hand from her. She clearly had boundaries of who could touch her how, but what woman hadn't?

She wanted to say something. Ask who he was and where he came from but she didn't say a word. She wasn't sure why but it was as if she was afraid that he wouldn't understand what she was saying or something along that line.

He clearly didn't understand her reasons for removing his hand as he was looking at her with confusion and surprise. He didn't state his surprise or confusion in words though and allowed her to put his hand down on the seaweed carpet underneath them.

The he caught sight of something else instead of her cheeks. Before she knew it he'd grabbed her leg and was staring at it; Sam having fallen flat on her bum. Sam winced when her head made contact with the rock underneath her and couldn't help but let out a silent curse as she held the throbbing part of her head.

What was he doing?

Sam blinked at she stared at him. Good, question, what was he doing?

He was holding her ankle and was poking it with one finger, almost if to check that they were real. She couldn't help but look at him as he examined her foot and shoe-clad leg with was could be explained as close to childish curiosity. Almost as if he hadn't seen a leg before. It was actually quite cute to see someone, and an almost grown man at that, study her feet as if it was a rarity hardly found when he himself had legs himself.

After a while he let Sam's leg go and placed it back down on the ground with such care that it would be that he almost had held a rare porcelain doll. His eyes traveled towards his own legs and he continued his curiosity with poking his own feet and legs as if to see if they were real, just like he'd done with Sam's.

When he laughed, Sam couldn't help but widen her eyes. His laugh was almost like the midnight waves. It danced around cave, above the water and through the small waterfall that made Sam want to almost bathe in it. She knew it was foolish but that was how she felt.

He said something, it sounded like only a few word but he definitely said something and it pained her ears to hear him speak. It wasn't that she wanted to be impolite so she tried her hardest not to hold her ears as his voice bounced around the walls. But it was almost like a loud shriek and squeaking mixed with a-lot of different other sounds and she felt like her ears was going to bleed from the sound.

What he said, Sam didn't know. He wasn't speaking a language she'd ever heard. Nor was she sure that she could bear the sound if she was to hear it again, sadly. It didn't make sense to her that his voice would be so horrible while his laugh was so beautiful and soft.

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He looked at her. He knew why she'd removed his hand, it was a similar reaction the people where he came from gave when someone would touch them so gentle but he wasn't sure why she'd winced when he'd spoken. Did she not want him to apologize for touching her in such an impolite way? Or was it something else? Was it him that made her winced? He couldn't place it.

She looked away from him, clearly she was blushing by the faint red that painted her cheeks. Why was she blushing? Or was she just warm? It was rather warm in the cave, it was more chilled during the day, or was it day here? Maybe it was chilly when it was night for her. He was unsure of how they lived up here.

He wanted to ask her so many questions. Ask her where they were, which continent they were on. Where she lived and how she lived. He knew from his mother that they didn't live in corals or underwater villages like they did back home. But he wasn't sure she would understand what he was saying. It was like his mother had said once in a night story that she used to read for him when he was little, "_A sea-creatures voice can not speak upon land..._". Could he maybe learn her language? So they could later on communicate with each other? Maybe she would understand why he was here and let her stay with him.

Allowing himself to take the first deep breath of air for the first time in his life, he couldn't help but smile at how it tasted of sea and salt. A soft reminder of home but also the reason that he left.

He sighed and looked around himself. He was only a few meters away from the water, which was pure luck that he'd managed to avoid it while he'd been unconscious. If the water had touched him... He shuddered at the thought. No, he was never returning there again. All he wanted was normality and here was the only place he could find it so he could start by making himself friendly with this woman.

Now that he paid her more attention he noticed that she was quite beautiful. Shoulder length wavy hair, light purple eyes, pale and fair skin, slim arms, curves, hips and long slender legs. Legs! Long and slender legs... He kept staring at her legs for what felt like forever but he couldn't help it. He'd never seen someone with legs before and an octopus didn't count since they didn't have legs but tentacles. His father had insisted that the octopus had legs and that was enough. He may love his father but that didn't mean that the man wasn't naturally stupid.

It didn't take her long to realize that he was staring at her legs and she said something in a harsh but beautiful voice. It was clear from the tone that she was angry with him and that he had done something wrong. He didn't know what though, he couldn't understand what she was saying so all he could do was look at her confused and shake his head in an attempt to make her understand.

"I... I don't understand you," he said and she held her ears as his voice jumped through the cave walls. He fast closed his mouth remembering his mothers words again. He could have literally slapped himself in stupidity. Humans didn't have the same senses like his people had so they couldn't understand their language. _I'm so stupid!_

He held up his hands instead and tried to show her he was sorry and that he wouldn't speak to her again until he cold actually speak her language instead. She seemingly understood most of what he was trying to tell her and gave him a nod.

This wasn't going to go well. Neither of them could communicate with one another. She could, clearly, not bear the sound of his voice because of her less advanced senses and he couldn't speak her language until he learnt it and even then it would be hard to tell if he could communicate with her. It wasn't know that his people would be able to learn the up-siders language just like they couldn't speak their language.

They had just come to a crack point, and that crack point was a steadfast coral wall.

...

Sam swallowed and tried to shake the sound of his harsh voice out of her head. He'd made it clear that he was sorry that he'd spoken to her, almost like he knew that his voice would hurt her to listen to. She, of course, had accepted his apology with ease since she just took it as a mistake on his part. She would have made the same mistake in speaking even if she had his voice. You would be used to speaking in your own language, right? So it would only be natural that you'd speak in the language you grew up with. It was just, he spoke in a language that she hardly recognized. She was unsure, but she was sure that she'd heard some Latin and Hebrew in his few words but she couldn't be entirely sure with how his voice was sounding through the cave.

She sighed. This wasn't going to be an easy thing to do. She couldn't just leave him here nor could she just take him up to the surface. She was sure that people wouldn't be out during this hour and especially not if there was a storm going on up there but they had to get out of the cave somehow. There was the way she came in but Sam wasn't sure that she could climb up the wall and she sure as hell wasn't going to want to see him naked again. But she was going to find a way out of the small cave somehow, or both of them would starve to death unless they were willing to eat raw seaweed for the rest of their lives unless they didn't drown first.

There was, however, another problem then just getting out of the underwater cave. She was quite curious on who this man was and he seemed even more curious on who she was so coming to a first-name-basis was nothing to argue about. The problem was only that they couldn't communicate with each other and if he spoke, Sam was afraid that she'd have her eardrums burst.

Well someone had to take the first step though.

She took a deep breath; swallowing the sent of seaweed and salt. Taping his shoulder she caught his attention from his own feet and pointed at herself and said, "Me, Samantha."

He frowned and opened his mouth but than closed it again. He it a few times but he didn't say anything and in the end he just looked like a dumb fish.

She tried again still pointing at herself. "S-A-M-A-N-T-H-A."

"S-H..." he tried but it didn't sound right. "C-A..." he tried again but neither did it this time. "C-H-A-N..." He gave up and let his head drop down shaking it. He couldn't pronounce her name.

This time it was her who frowned and she scratched the back of her head a little before she tried something simpler that she knew he would remember. "S-A-M."

He looked up in surprise and blinked. She said it again and he almost tasted it on his tongue silently and nodded before he tried his best to prononce it. "C-A... S-H-A... C-H-A... C-A-M-M..." It seemed to be the closest he could come to her name but it would have to do for now and they could perfect his speak later.

Sam didn't even have to try to manage a name out of him as she tried to find a way to say his own before she'd even had the chance to point at him. He was trying to find a way to pronounce his name so that he wouldn't hurt her ears and it seemed that he had a hard time finding the right way. But after what felt like a good couple of twenty minutes he nodded.

"D-H-A-N-T-P-U-O-M-E."

Sam tried to say it, but the way he pronounced it sounded foreign to her tongue and she soon gave up letting him spell the name out for her instead. Was this how he felt when she was spelling he name out of him?

"D-H-A-N-T..." He started and he waited for Sam to try and piece the few letters together and in the end she end up with a name that was very foreign for him but still very similar to his own if it would be translated.

"Danny?" She asked it as if she was scared that it would be wrong but he tried and tasted it on his tongue. He seemed to think about the name for a moment before nodding with a smile. It could work fine. He could take it as a nickname; he had a lot of those back home.

Sam smiled and let out a sigh and she held out her hand. He looked at it for a moment before he nodded and took it. Sam couldn't help but spot the faint small webbing closest to his palms that would have been completely invisible to notice if she hadn't bothered to look and couldn't help but wonder. What was he, this man?

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**Please review! **


	3. Chapter 3

**I'm sorry I didn't upload this Wednesday but I just haven't had that much time to write these past days. I'm currently working on a clothing store six hours including lunch five days a week and I'm still not used to the new change. I know that some others also have the same problem as I've had this passing week so that is why this chapter is late. I will try and upload the next chapter on time. I'm very sorry for the late update once again. **

**Disclaimer_ I don't own Danny Phantom. **

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Sam was rather proud of herself. She had managed to find out the man's name - even though they didn't speak the same language -, learnt that he had the worst voice she'd ever heard, had the most weird yet beautiful eyes that she'd ever seen and gotten used to his presence all before she decided that they could probably leave the cave. Like said, she was very proud of herself.

The storm had hardly been heard from inside the cave but now she couldn't hear it at all which she took as a sign that it was free to start heading home, and since she couldn't just leave Danny alone in the cave without either clothing or food she had decided to take him home with her; her boyfriend wouldn't be home in about a month anyway so what was a little company going to do than good?

Dusting herself off of invisible dirt Sam stood up and walked towards the cave wall with the tunnel in it. Her leg felt slightly better now that she'd had the time to rest it and if she would just take it easy she wouldn't have anytime begin able to walk normal on it again without any pain.

A low rumble stopped her from slowly crawling through the tunnel and she looked back at Danny who was still sitting at the same spot not having moved an inch.

Sam frowned and raised an eyebrow at him. It was similar to an animal and Sam couldn't help but stare at him before she collected herself. She motioned for him to come with her but he only shook his head.

"What is it now? Can't you walk or something?" Sam couldn't help but voice her questions aloud as she walked back towards him and when she reached for his hand he blushed. He pointed at his legs and blushed even more. "What, you don't have any clothing on? I've already seen you naked plus I have no shirt, if you'd mind." She knew he couldn't understand her but that didn't mean that she hadn't wanted to say those words towards him already. He was clearly being stubborn about this.

When he didn't take her hand she grabbed his without warning and tried with all her strength to pull him up on two legs. She wanted to get out of the cave before it would turn bright outside, which would only be embarrassing if she'd be seen walking with a random naked man. She became embarrassed by just thinking about it and couldn't help but tug at his arm a little harder. The result was the same; he didn't budge or even move except for his arms. Sam was sure she'd tug his arms out of their joints before he'd move.

She sighed and let his arms go. This was just not going to go as easy as she'd hoped and having him refuse to walk just made the burden extra large. Why did he refuse to walk anyway? Sam knew he'd been fascinated with his legs, and hers, but that didn't mean that he couldn't walk, did it? She glanced at Danny and swallowed. What if he really couldn't walk.

"Oh please," she breathed out and let her head fall forward. How was she supposed to teach a grown man how to walk? It would take months to be able to get the muscle built up enough for a human to walk and normally you'd learn how to crawl before that. _How am I supposed to teach him how to walk in just a few minutes?_

The thought was impossible to Sam, of course she knew that she could teach him how to walk after a good couple of months of training but in a few minutes? No, that wouldn't work and with the condition they were in Sam knew that they didn't have less than a few hours. If she was right about the cave being underwater during most of the day then they had absolutely no time to train walking, nor sit and let time pass by.

With a deep sigh and a determined face Sam stood in front of Danny, tall and proud - that was at least what she wanted him to believe that she was - and reached her hands out towards him once again. She had decided, she was going to have him out of this cave within the hour or they would both drown (and Sam had no intention of dying just yet and definitely not within a cave where no one would ever find her).

Danny swallowed as he stared at her hands. Should he take them or should he let them be? He knew that she wanted him to follow her but how could he tell her that he really couldn't walk when she couldn't stand his voices.

With hesitation he placed his hands in hers and he felt how she tried her hardest to pull him up on two legs. It was clear that he was way to heavy for her to lift alone and he tried his hardest, he really did, to try and stand but his legs buckled down underneath him the moment he was even close to be even at least up on knee.

He sighed and hit his face against the rock wall beside him and let his head rest against the cold stone; his hands still resting in Sam's. She was talking, saying all kinds of things that he didn't understand. He was faintly sure that she asked questions and made different kinds of statements by the tone of her voice but he wasn't entirely sure. He'd never heard a human speak before and hearing their language was almost like trying to speak to a shark, no-one was that stupid.

Sam tugged at his arm again and Danny glanced at him. His eyes said it all, he'd already given up. He really couldn't walk.

In disappointment Sam damp down beside him. How was she going to be able to get him out of here if he wasn't even able to walk? Oh, cruel Lady Luck, how was he going to get up the cliff if he couldn't even stand up tall?

Sam's head fell into her hands as she felt completely useless. What was she going to do? There had to be another way out of the cave than just the tunnel. That was when it clicked, the underwater tunnels! She could help him swim out and then they could at least make it to shore and she could take it from there with walking and helping him stand. You always was lighter in the water, right? Then learning how to walk in the water would be so much easier than learning how to walk on land, true?

Danny raised an eyebrow as Sam flew up on two feet and did all kinds of different gestures. He wasn't sure what she was trying to tell him and could only shake his head at her when he just saw blurred hand-gestures.

She sighed, took a deep breath and moved her hands slower. She showed swimming, that he was sure of and when she pointed at the water he knew what she wanted. She wanted them to swim out of the cave.

His eyes traveled to the pond behind them and he quickly scooted away from the water. It had been damn close to touching him and than hell would have broken lose. There was a reason to why he was on dry land in the first place. He was not going into the water, dot!

Shacking his head desperately he refused to go even near the water. As long as it was the sea than he wouldn't even dare going even an inch closer to it.

This time it was Sam's turn to look plain confused. What was he doing? _Oh, please don't tell me he can't swim either? _She gave him a few glances back and forth through the water. Or maybe he was just scared of the water. He could have been washed up through the underwater tunnel and was to freaked out by the experience to go back in.

She nodded. She wasn't going to pressure him, so the only thing that was left to do was teach him how to stand on two legs, and of course, walk on them as well.

Sam walked over to him and reached out her hands towards him and gave him a kind but impatient smile. By the look in her eyes he was kinda scared to take her hands but did so anyways and with help of the wall beside him he at least managed to stand up enough to be on his knees before he fell back to the floor again.

He was going to do it. He had already decided that and so had Sam, he wasn't going to let her down. It was walking out of here or swim out, and the later was not an option. Definitely.

Taking another breath he tried again, Sam helping with her own strength but how many times he tried didn't matter, he still fell down again. And after what felt like forever he was actually, with help of the wall to lean on and Sam's hands, able to stand up on unstable legs for at least three seconds flat before he made contact with the seaweed carpet again.

With the progress came more hope for them getting out of there, Sam knew, so she kept trying even if he did look rather tired. And to be honest, it didn't surprise her at all that he was tired already. He was trying to learn how to stand in the matter of only an hour while it would need more than weeks, months to be able to walk fluently. He was either very determined or had some awesome leg muscle, or maybe both? She hoped both for his sake, because if he didn't learn how to stand, less how to walk than they were both in for it.

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It took longer than Sam had wanted it to but faster than she'd hoped for before Danny actually took his very first steps. It was clear by the look in his eyes that it must have hurt like hell but he was going to have to stand tall this once if he wanted to get out of there. Sam wasn't going to stay much longer and if she so had to practically carry Danny to get out of there than she was going to carry him out.

"Okay," Sam said as she let Danny put an arm over her shoulders while the other rested along the wall, Sam's own hand wrapped around his waist.

Slowly the two made it towards the tunnel. Both of them fell a few times during the short walk and both of them were in the end hoping that they could just lay down soon because their legs ached. Danny's because he had never walked before and Sam's because she had one large hell of a wound on her leg.

Sam dearly hoped that he knew how to crawl because if he didn't than it would become an even deeper problem. Luckily for both of them crawling was easier than walking and it took Danny only minutes to actually learn the technique and soon he was crawling behind Sam - who'd retrieved her shirt and put it on again - who was crawling in front of him.

Upwards the tunnel felt way longer than it had been down and Sam wasn't sure if her tired arms would be able to hold her all the way up towards the top. It was good that Danny was crawling behind her or she would have lied down in the middle of the tunnel, most likely fallen asleep there.

The first sign that they were close to the end was when the wind blew into the tunnel, chilling both of them. Danny shivered but stayed strong being used to the cold temperature than most people. He noticed the small goosebumps on Sam's naked arms and frowned. He wondered why humans didn't dress warmer when they did, in fact, live in a very cold climate. He'd seen many of the magazines and papers - he believed that was what they were called at least - had pictures of humans in very little clothing. Of course, this didn't really phase him much, back home where he grew up they didn't even have shirts! But humans did and apparently people didn't wear them that often if he had understood it right. Danny feared that he'd never understand the world above.

The cold increased the closer up they came and when Danny actually saw the large dark grey clouds above on the sky he couldn't help but be amazed. He'd never seen clouds in his entire life, no one of his people had. He never understood why people didn't want to see things like these.

Sam crawled out on the small platform again and let out a sigh. She breathed in the cold air and let the wind whip her hair in her face for a while before she looked down. Danny came up the end of the tunnel soon after her and she reached out her hands to help him stand up and this time she didn't have to explain how they where to get up, Danny seemed to already realize as he gazed up the cliff.

"You can't be serious..." he mumbled and hung his head. He'd done some climbing in the caves back home, those that had large air bubbles in them; he'd broken his wrist and some of his bones and hadn't been allowed to move for almost six weeks.

Well, it was only to start climbing if they didn't want to get washed away be the water; which STILL wasn't an option.

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**Some of you are probably now wondering, "_Shouldn't he have been able to walk from the beginning, it would have been simpler that way!_" I'll only reply with "_Can a newborn walk directly when it exits the womb?"_ because for Danny it's kind of a similar experience. This story is a Mer-fic after all and it is physically impossible to be able to walk directly without pain if you haven't walked for weeks less if you haven't for your entire life. It's just like if you break your leg or been in a wheel chair for weeks or months it's hard to walk directly afterwards. So there's a reason for that. But I needed to get them out of the cave rather quickly since I didn't want to wast much time in there because it was hard to find anything to write about while they were stuck in there and since Danny is a _we-all-know-what_, he'd have a lot of leg strength or leg muscle for having been swimming his entire life and some arm muscle as well. But that doesn't mean he's overly muscular.**

**Some of the things I mention in these early chapters will be explained in later chapters so don't worry if you don't understand at first, you're not always supposed to ;)**


	4. Chapter 4

**I'm not really sure about this chapter, seeing as I never got it the way I had it in my head but I had less time this time than on the other chapters so that is understandable. I will probably rewrite it some other time and see if I can get it better, if not than I will most likely keep it like this even if I myself think I could have done better. **

**Well, I don't own anything. **

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With the tide rising and water level slowly getting closer and closer to them, both Danny and Sam gripped the slippery cliff edge; both trying to push their way up as fast as possible – which in its own phase wasn't very fast at all. Sam having lost most of the usage of one of her legs while her wrist was slightly throbbing was having a hard time keeping both hands and feet attached to the wet and slippery sea-cliff. Danny who had practically no control (and a lot of at the moment useless leg muscle) of his legs were having it a little harder to climb than Sam. She could use her legs and arms to a certain degree and was actually a few good inches above him even if they'd started climbing at the same time. Not to mention that Danny had to make sure that he didn't get too soaked climbing on the cliff, he had a hard time keeping up with Sam and lost the grip on the cliff a lot of times and slid down a few times before he'd actually gotten a god grip.

He could see how the small webbing between his hands was slowly darkening in color and how his nails slowly grew larger and into the skin resembling claws more. It freaked him out knowing that wherever he was water would still be a part of the world he stepped into. But he had to ignore the slipperiness and climb!

Sam fought her way up to the upper part of the sea-cliff and was trying her best to get over the edge. The salt water that had fallen to it with the large waves had soaked it wet and made it hard to get a good grip even if she used her nail, which is why she was surprised when a hand reached out towards her. The owner of the hand being Danny Sam looked behind her and saw that he was no longer there.

She grabbed his hand and he dragged her up and she felt something pulse between their fingers when they touched. She quickly withdrew her hand and looked at it; a faint green musky colored substance had attached itself to her hand and slowly disappeared by sinking into her hand. Her eyes grew larger but she smiled back when Danny gave her a concerned frown. He hadn't seen the substance and Sam was glad for that.

_Okay, that did go better then I'd thought_, Sam thought as she looked down the cliff. When looking from now it hadn't really been that great a distance and that they made it up quickly wasn't just their luck. _We should probably move before the rain starts again_, Sam looked up at the sky and swallowed. The rain had slowly faded to only small drops at slow phase but that didn't mean that it wouldn't increase in time.

She grabbed Danny's hand and started leading him away from the cliffs and towards the sandy beaches. There was supposed to be a small store somewhere upwards the beach that sold all kinds of different beach items. If she wasn't wrong Sam was sure that she'd seen a pair of swimming trunks somewhere in the small shop. All she had to do was find the place and things would be mostly okay.

She glanced back at Danny, trying her hardest not to look at inappropriate places and noticed that he was, in-fact, not freezing. He shuddered when the cold winds blew past him but otherwise he didn't really seem to mind the weather, almost as if he was used to the cold weather. Sam on the other hand was freezing to a very high degree that her skin had started to knot and shift to an even paler color than her normal one.

"Where was that stupid store, now again…" she asked herself as they walked the beach. If the weather had been nicer, if Danny had had any cloths and if she wasn't trying her hardest to tumble over when walking, it would have actually been romantic… in a way.

The store was on the west side of the beach and Sam hadn't dared counting the minutes that flashed by making their way up there. She neither wanted to know how much money she actually had in her pocket at the moment and if any of it was intact; if they was lucky though than she could pay the rest tomorrow or some other day.

"Okay, stay here," Sam said as she gestured for Danny to stay outside the store.

They'd been lucky. The store had still a few minutes before closing time and if Sam was quick than she might actually get a good pair of trunks that wouldn't just fit him but would also be able to be reused in the future.

Danny nodded and sat down on the sand as she walked inside. He had no idea of where they were and he was unsure of all this walking. He's legs was killing him. He hadn't said anything to Sam because he knew she wouldn't understand but his legs were hurting more than he'd thought was possible.

Sam almost hugged the warmth of the store when she stepped inside. It had gotten colder during their walk and she was freezing. She looked around the store for a while before she found the swimming trunks. They only had one pair of swimming trunks left and the pair was black and white with sharks on them with red teeth. In her own sane mind they would be rather cool if fixed up but at the moment they looked rather childish, still they were the only pair left so she grabbed a medium size pair, glad that they had laces in the waist and walked towards the cashier.

The kid had large pair of glasses and rowdy orange hair with a freckled face. Sam recognized him from her high-school days, Lester she thought his name was. He hadn't changed much in the few years that'd passed.

"Hi," she said with a forced smile. She gave him the trunks and he looked at them, back at her before he clicked in a few numbers before handing them back. Sam looked through her pocket for the money but found only 2 dollars and fifty cents.

"That'll be fifteen dollars and thirteen cents," Lester said and eyed the money in her hand suspiciously.

"Um… Lester, right?" He nodded. "You remember me, don't you? We went to the same high school together. I… uh… I don't have the money right now," Sam said as she watched the door. She turned back to him. "I will give you back your share of course, but right now I really need these trunks. Can I please come back tomorrow or some other day this or next week? I have this…" She showed him the money. "…Could you please take it just for now?"

Lester eyed her before he looked at the money.

Danny stood up when he saw Sam come out of the store with a pair of weird thing in her hand that looked to be made out of plastic while something very colorful rested underneath. He watched as Sam removed the plastic from the fabric underneath before she handed him the pair.

"Swimming trunks." He looked at her and she repeated the word while pointing at what appeared to be the swimming trunks.

He nodded and studied them before he tried to say what they were called. At first he failed but soon he managed to say it at least enough to be understandable. "Swimming trunks," he said as Sam smiled with a nod.

She showed him how he was going to put the trunks on and soon he looked at himself from the front and at the behind. It felt weird, to say the least. Though it had felt weird with legs as well so trunks would feel even weirder, right?

"Swimming trunks," he said again with a smile.

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**Review please!**


	5. Chapter 5

**Thanks so~o much for the reviews! **

**Discaimer_ I don't own anything. Enjoy!**

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The first thing that Sam had done when they'd arrived at her apartment was fall flat on the sofa. She had thought that living in the middle of the city would bring her an upside with her job and free-time activities but now it felt as if she'd been walking for days and not just the few hours – three to be more exact – it had taken them to get home. Luckily Sam lived in an apartment with an elevator so she wouldn't have to explain to her neighbors why she was walking with a half-naked man. She shuddered if the rumor would go round.

Danny, who had literally collapsed on the floor, was looking around himself in excitement. He was currently in the hallway but he couldn't help himself but feel on the thin walls and at the different wooden furniture that adored the house; it was surprisingly light for the current dark atmosphere that was present.

With help of the wall Danny got up on two legs and walk-leaned towards the room that Sam had entered. There he found her sound asleep on what he wasn't sure of what it was. It reminded him of a clam to a certain point with the soft cushions but otherwise there weren't really many similarities. Maybe this was their version of Clams; he thought and turned his eyes to the sleeping woman. She was wet and shivering, her hair was clued to her face in wet stripes and her pale skin had small knots spread out on her naked arms. She was going to get sick if she wouldn't warm up; she needed a blanket.

Danny looked around the room; he went through a few weird small rooms with small thin platforms out of a material he'd never seen before he found the blankets. The material was itchy and felt weird against his thick skin but when he held it out unfurled before him it looked almost like the blankets they had at home so he grabbed two, one white and the other a faint blue color. He spread the blankets over Sam's sleeping body before he tucked her in tightly; in her sleep Sam grabbed the blankets with her shivering fists and curled up in a small ball making Danny laugh. With a smile he decided to leave her alone.

He decided to take a look around seeing as his hostess had slipped into a sweet sleep. He had already seen the hallway and what appeared to be some sort of meeting or sleeping room – he wasn't sure which – and was eager to see what more he would find in the weird house. His first stop was the kitchen which he directly recognized from being similar to his own back home, well almost, they didn't have that weird box thing with that black window on it nor did they had that cold closet. Though he found many similarities, like the counter and the knife stacks – though the knives here looked a lot sharper than the ones back home –, the cabinets were similar, too. The table in the middle of the room with the chairs pulled in underneath it was also like home, he thought. Though the space's and height of the rooms back home was larger and bigger didn't change his opinion in that the small space was rather comfortable if one was used to it.

Walking through one of the doorways in the kitchen he came to a small hallway again where there were three doors; one had the words WC in black on it, the other stood slightly a-gap while the third was completely closed looking as if it would burst any second. He opened the door with the WC on first and found what he had never seen before in his entire life. There were white a lot and then there were some black too. There was a weird shaped chair in complete white and a very weird counter that seemed too small with too little space. Over the small counter there was a mirror that he clearly recognized but he didn't recognize the man _displayed _in the mirror. His pale thick skin was slightly tanned, the locks around his face was a little longer so they almost covered his eyes which were a faint ocean blue color; you could almost see the sea in them(!) and when he looked at his ears they were small and the same color as his new skin tone, the small canine teeth wasn't visible and when he touched his neck all he felt was smooth skin. He brought his hands out in front of him and he stared at the now no-longer-there webbing. He could hardly believe it, he was really a human now, walking on land with normal hands, normal ears and he breathed normal oxygen like humans did; he felt a hard lump form in his throat as he felt a small piece of him miss home.

Danny shook his head suddenly, slamming a hand to his forehead and silently lecturing himself on thinking of home in a situation like this. He had other, more fun, things to do and he was not going to let some homesickness stop him, at least not for the moment he wouldn't.

He sighed and walked out of the weird room. He would ask Sam about it later.

Turning to the second room that he pushed the door fully open and spotted what appeared to be some sort of sleeping room, too. There was a large, soft, rectangular furniture taking up most of the room while the rest was spread out with cloths, some other furniture that was lying across the room as if someone had pushed them – or even thrown them – down and the covers to the rectangular soft thing was thrown everywhere. Feeling curious on the soft rectangular Danny walked forwards towards it and let his hand rest on it. He gave it a little more weight and felt how his hands slowly sank in before he retrieved it and just stared blankly at the weird soft thing. He sat down on it after a while of just staring at it and suddenly he felt really sleepy. He wanted to get up and keep exploring but instead his body told him to lie down; he did.

His last thought before he fell asleep was, _This is rather comfortable…_

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A green figure with an el-like tail swam over to a small crown of similar creatures. He whispered something to one of the fish-like men's fin-like ear and the man nodded. He turned directly and swam through large corridors before he was met with two metal clad guards, each having a different kind of fishtail with a different color, fins and patterns. The two let him in quickly and he entered the large grand chamber. A small group of mermen sat on six out of the seven high up seats, the seventh currently at one of the large glass-less windows, the merman bowed for the six higher ups while giving a nod at the seventh who did not see it.

"I have a report, sirs," he said while bowed.

"Speak!" the highest up said and looked at the man with a stern look, his long bony green fingers clutching the armrest restlessly.

The man by the window glanced at the messenger before he turned back to look out the window at the large sea-garden spreading out outside the large room. He already knew what the messenger had to say and did not need to hear it. But that didn't mean he knew where the boy was.

_Old man, could you tell my sister to say I've gone away for a short while? I need some time to think this through_; the boy's voice echoed through his mind.

"The boy," the messenger started. "…He is missing. He never showed up at the gates and his family has told that he is not with them either."

A frown clad the high council members face. This wasn't good. "Do you know where he was last seen?" the high council member asked the merman.

He shook his head. "No, I'm sorry, sir, but no-one has seen him since earlier this morning." The man looked up at the council. "But his family stated that he went out earlier than usual, said he had to speak with someone about something very important."

"Did he mention who this _'someone' _was?"

"No, he did not."

The council member sighed but made a swift movement with his hand. "You may go, thank you."

The messenger nodded before he left the chamber.

"This is more trouble than it should be," one of the members said. The others agreed.

The blue skinned man by the window turned towards them, bright red eyes almost glowing. "Try to understand his position. He feels pressured and so feels the need to be alone, give him time and let him think about it. We'll know when he decides to return."

"And what if he does never?" one member asked. "What shall you do then?"

"When the time comes, we'll deal with that but at the present we should not worry over what is yet to come." The man swam up to the next to highest seat and sat down, his eyes falling shut. "Don't we have more important tasks to attend to?"

The council members looked at each other before nodding and did similar to the blue skinned man and closed their eyes, falling silent.

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